It's not the first time the idea of school consolidation has been brought up in York County.

But to some, it is the right time for serious talks.

"This is the only time we've had this opportunity in the city of York to look at some significant changes to the way we offer education," said Mike Johnson, a member of the advisory committee helping to formulate a plan for turning around the York City School District.

The committee, led by chief recovery officer David Meckley, on Thursday discussed several options for reforming city schools , including the broad category of consolidation -- merging the city district with others in some way.

Meckley noted that the category included various forms of the idea, from three-district consolidation to countywide. The main districts mentioned were Central York, York Suburban and West York, he said.

The group agreed to send a letter to other districts, to see if any might be open to discussions about consolidation or other cooperation.

During the meeting, Michael Thew, executive director of the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12, cautioned that the letter to districts should be pretty open. There isn't enough data yet for them to make any kind of decision, he said, so it isn't fair to put them on the spot.

Kate Orban, York Suburban's superintendent, agreed, saying that the other districts don't have the background the committee does.

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"Board members are responsible to their constituents," she said, noting that boards would likely want to get community input.

Rodney Drawbaugh, West York Area School Board president, said Friday it's an interesting idea that would require a lot of conversation.

"There would be a lot of questions that would have to be answered, issues that would have to be looked at," he said. "I think we need to be thinking about novel ideas given the economic climate we all exist in. ... I think we should be open to talking about anything."

Lynne Leopold-Sharp, president of the York Suburban School Board, said Orban is expected to report to the school board Monday about the committee meeting.

Ease of implementation

PFM Group, a firm hired by the state, will be gathering information in order to help the committee evaluate ideas. One of the areas to be looked at is how difficult the various options might be to implement.

Meckley said Thursday that he thought consolidation could be difficult. But, he said, "that doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt it" if it's worth doing.

The timeline of the recovery process was discussed during the meeting, too.

The financial recovery law says a recovery plan must be presented to the board within 90 days, which would set a deadline in March. But Meckley has said he plans to seek an extension, and likely will present a plan in April.

Meckley said in an email Friday that consolidation would be a long-term strategy.

"If it is included in the recovery plan, it would be considered down the road if some districts were willing to have serious discussions," he said. "I can't see any way it would impact the school district even in the 2014-15 school year."

Orban noted that even if community members go for the idea, the financial questions still seem like an obstacle.

"For me that's why we're here as well, to help this district become financially steady and stop those students from leaving," she said. The districts are dealing with different collective bargaining agreements and tax rates, for example.

Consolidation was among ideas considered but not ultimately recommended by the YorkCounts work group that settled on a nonprofit charter model as its recommendation.

Eric Menzer, chairman of the group, said that they were looking for an idea that was bold without being unrealistic and implausible.

Some have called for countywide consolidation, but that is "of arguable efficacy" in solving the city's problems, he said during a recent meeting with the York Daily Record editorial board. It also seemed so implausible that the YorkCounts group didn't think it made sense to recommend it, he said.

Menzer said that others have argued for breaking up the city district among other districts. But simply removing the boundaries doesn't change the makeup of neighborhoods and schools, he said, so it would take pretty aggressive redistricting and busing to achieve economic integration.

Community ideas

Some community members have suggested various forms of consolidation.

West Manchester Township resident Gary Kraybill, a member of the Class of 1959, said he submitted to the advisory committee an idea that would involve combining York City and York Suburban along with certain portions of the Central York and West York school districts, to create a York Area School District.

He advocates for creating charter schools at the K-5 level, where city students would attend and suburban students could choose to attend, and one middle school and one high school for all students in the district.

Kraybill said he believes the idea would address the problem of people moving out of the city, create better socioeconomic balance, and have financial benefits.

"It's a community school district," he said.

Warren Bulette, of the York County Taxpayers Council, wrote to the York Daily Record in favor of consolidating five districts to start: West York, Central York, York City, Dallastown and York Suburban. He estimates it would save $4 million a year and there would be more equal education opportunities, because of common curriculum, and more effective spending.

"This consolidated School District will also have the critical mass infrastructure needed to implement and sustain best practices for reducing dropouts," Bulette wrote. He suggests the new district should take other steps, such as implementing a new performance pay structure, and that eventually, countywide consolidation should be considered.

Genevieve Ray, who sits on the advisory committee, suggested Thursday the York County School of Technology could be looked at as a model. She wondered if there was a way to have districts support magnet schools.

"It's a step toward consolidation in a way, certainly interdistrict cooperation," she said.

Ray and Mike Johnson both said that because the concentration of poverty seems to cause the city district's challenges, they'd hate to see consolidation dismissed as a possibility.

Johnson said he thinks it would be difficult to have a city district providing an equal level of education without somehow including a significant number of students from other districts.

The ideas and evaluation

Charters: YorkCounts has proposed an all-nonprofit charter school model, and other variations including charters have been proposed, too.

Consolidation: Proposals have ranged from a few districts to countywide. The option would be a more long-term solution, since the advisory committee has a tight timeline for coming up with a plan.

Transformation: Ideas mentioned include magnet schools, and restructuring wages and benefits. More information is expected to be presented at the next advisory committee meeting.

Others: The committee discussed the Communities in Schools model and advocating for state legislative changes, deciding both should be considered as part of the other options, rather than standalone ideas.

PFM Group, a firm hired by the state, will be providing information to help the committee evaluate ideas in four areas:

--- if it would provide a sustainable business model

--- if it would provide sound, effective education

--- if it would provide a healthy, safe learning environment

--- how difficult it would be to implement

PSBA study

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association issued a report on school district mergers and consolidation in 2009, after then Gov. Ed Rendell advocated for cutting districts statewide from 501 to 100.

PSBA research found there were then no documented cases of financial savings from mergers or consolidations, the report says, and that the decisions should be left to the local level, not the state.

The report included a section on what it might look like in terms of teacher salaries if districts in York County combined. It also includes information on the merger of the Center Area and Monaca into the Central Valley School District. That merger, according to PSBA, showed the lack of a clearly defined process for doing so.

Future of York City School District

The York City School District has been declared in financial distress by the state, and a recovery officer is charged with turning around the district's finances. At the same time, a YorkCounts report on the district's future has recommended it become an all-charter district in order to succeed in educating city students.

york city school district, david meckley, recovery officer, yorkcounts, deborah wortham, cram session